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There is an overenthusiastic, uncritical way of looking at it, but there is a cynical way of looking at it, too. I realize now that I'm older that I'm a creep

There is an overenthusiastic, uncritical way of looking at it, but there is a cynical way of looking at it, too. I realize now that I'm older that I'm a creep I'm a weirdo (I'm not a creep) and it is because I had a ton of undiagnosed neurodivergent behaviors that I didn't really figure out how to handle (or even have diagnosed) until I was in my 30s. Would I ask for my disorders? Would I want them on anyone? Hell no. It sucks, I've felt out of place more than once, not noticed obvious social clues more than once, and not wanted to exist for days on end more than once. I'm not going to throw a party over it and when people pat me on the back it annoys me. We're all fucked up, some more than others, and some more aware of it than others. However, I don't know about you, but to function in my mid 30s I'm pretty aware of my mental state. I know that I can be really, really wrong. Nobody has to tell that to me. I know how this machine runs and how it breaks down. I also know that a lot of people never ever figure that out because they don't have to. I think the part of this "divergence" that is absolutely, absolutely critical is the ability to see the world from different perspectives. We're slowly understanding the importance of that as a society through notions such as representation, but the way some people will look at you when you admit you are in one of these categories - you know we still have along ways to go. But be proud of yourself, things will continue to improve and most importantly, you've got a lot of wisdom you can share if you wish.

Y_Y 5y ago
What the hell am I doing here? I'd just like to point out among certain groups, like programmers, the behaviour you describe is not so weird. Maybe that's one of the things that attracts us to fields like this.
- snek_case 5y ago
  Could also be tangential. I think you need to be a certain amount of obsessive in order to be a programmer. Seems a lot of people just get frustrated and give up quickly. Lots of people seem to also not really have the ability to decompose a problem into parts recursively. There's this old story about into to programming classes, with 50% of the class doing great and the other 50% failing. It's not a myth IMO, I've taught a class with 70 people and I've seen it myself. If there's a biological explanation for that, it's going to be unpopular for sure, because it would go against the notion that anyone can be trained to do anything if they just put in the work.
  - whatshisface 5y ago
    There are a lot of neurotypical programmers too. It's not so much that autism makes you better at cognitively loaded tasks as it doesn't make you worse at them.
    - serverholic 5y ago
      In my experience the neurotypical programmers tend to be less exceptional. Obviously not a rule but it's something I've observed.
      - snek_case 5y ago
        We're all speculating without hard data, but just for fun, another pet theory explaining something like this could be as simple as: neurotypical programmers tend to enjoy socializing more than neuroatypical programmers, so they generally spend less time on the computer, and are less proficient at programming, on average, simply because they have less practice. That doesn't preclude someone who is neurotypical from enjoying computers and programming and bucking the trend.
        whatshisface 5y ago
        Or maybe people who are neurotypical rise to management faster (because they have better interpersonal skills) and so spend less of their career programming.

Y_Y 5y ago

What the hell am I doing here? I'd just like to point out among certain groups, like programmers, the behaviour you describe is not so weird. Maybe that's one of the things that attracts us to fields like this.

snek_case 5y ago
Could also be tangential. I think you need to be a certain amount of obsessive in order to be a programmer. Seems a lot of people just get frustrated and give up quickly. Lots of people seem to also not really have the ability to decompose a problem into parts recursively. There's this old story about into to programming classes, with 50% of the class doing great and the other 50% failing. It's not a myth IMO, I've taught a class with 70 people and I've seen it myself. If there's a biological explanation for that, it's going to be unpopular for sure, because it would go against the notion that anyone can be trained to do anything if they just put in the work.
- whatshisface 5y ago
  There are a lot of neurotypical programmers too. It's not so much that autism makes you better at cognitively loaded tasks as it doesn't make you worse at them.
  - serverholic 5y ago
    In my experience the neurotypical programmers tend to be less exceptional. Obviously not a rule but it's something I've observed.
    - snek_case 5y ago
      We're all speculating without hard data, but just for fun, another pet theory explaining something like this could be as simple as: neurotypical programmers tend to enjoy socializing more than neuroatypical programmers, so they generally spend less time on the computer, and are less proficient at programming, on average, simply because they have less practice. That doesn't preclude someone who is neurotypical from enjoying computers and programming and bucking the trend.
      - whatshisface 5y ago
        Or maybe people who are neurotypical rise to management faster (because they have better interpersonal skills) and so spend less of their career programming.